Archive for the 'Queso' Category

I couldn’t find much information about Grupo Mayor, but I do know that the song Te Ves Buena was written by Panamanian reggae artist Edgardo Franco, aka El General. Although reggae en español had been around for a while, El General had scored one of its first international hits with this dancehall tune. When I lived in Nicaragua in the early 90’s, this form of early reggaeton was blowing up all over Central America. There probably wasn’t one country where I didn’t hear this song or ones like it – even Banda Vallarta Show did their own banda version. On a side note, I did recall that reggae en español would only be played at house parties after the parents left or weren’t around. As insinuated by my cousins, the music may have been too risque in Nicaragua for the time – I never understood that one.

Anyway, just wanted to thank everyone who helped out with the February 45 sessions: Adam Dunbar, Marcos Juarez, Eamon Ore-Giron, Oliver Wang, Alex LaRotta, and Cameron Thompson – thanks a ton guys!!! Gonna talk a break from the site for a while, but if you need anything at all please feel free to bother me – sonidofranko@gmail.com. Enjoy!

There has been such amazing music the last 11 days, I thought I’d change things up by dropping this huge turd on you guys. But I’m pretty sure somewhere (for some reason) there is a person who will love this song and it will change their life forever. For myself though, I never had an appreciation for 80’s top 40 pop music – then and now. I was going to do a Whitney Houston (RIP) six degrees of separation with this song, but the only thing Banda Supermacho’s rendition of Ghostbusters helped doing was to exterminate all my ambition. Enjoy?

There probably isn’t much more I can say about Mexico City’s electro-maraduer Memo Rios. Basically he made a living ripping off 80’s techno cover songs, all the while butchering the lyrics to his own personal Chilango likings. Nevertheless, this is my third article about him, so I do give the man credit where credit is due. Even though I feel that his music is just ok – I personally respect his abstraction of this genre of music. And the more I find/listen to these recordings, the more I am convinced that Memo Rios is more conceptual artist than plagiarist. Tacos yes, sandwiches no!!!

I just wanted to post the full Panamérika show for you. It seems that the interview got picked up by the Ibero 90.9 FM, which is a private college radio station in Mexico City. The funny thing is, there is a ton of pretty awesome record dealers right next to the Ibero (Universidad Iberoamericana) – I’ve come up huge there in the past, so this post has come full circle so to speak. Anyway, I’ve been getting a lot of accolades from the Mexican blogosphere – twitter for the most part. So thank you for all the love. Also, I wanted to drop some Mexican cumbia while I had the opportunity. All you Ibero kids remember, di no a las drogas!!! Disfrútalo!!!

To be quite honest with you, during the 80’s, I was never really a big fan of pop music. It never spoke to me. But my music preferences have evolved and still do to this day. And with the passage of time, now that my music tastes have matured, I can say that I still do not like this type of music.

What I don’t understand is that this sound is making a bit of a comeback. Remove the whole hipster neon-generation ironic thing and you are still left with music that is hit or miss. But with all negativity removed, maybe I should just take it for what it is – its ok…I suppose? I have friends from Mexico City and Tijuana who usually tend to go ape shit over this kinda stuff. So the nostalgia factor is something that I totally understand – but it’s not for me.

Besides Leo Dan, most these acts hail from Mexico, trying to cash in on some sort of new-wave music hysteria that captured the US in the mid to late 80’s. Byanka probably had the most success with her Madonna cover. It’s interesting to see that Grupo Latino even pooped out the Italo Disco favorite from La Bionda. But probably my favorite cut out of all of these 45’s is Morgan’s Que Bonita Baila (how beautiful you dance) – nice break on that. Anyway, like I said, hit or miss. Enjoy!

P.S. = Tomorrow O-Dub from Soul Sides is dropping an article. Stay tuned – the music is very very nice.

These days you won’t find me in thrift stores looking for records anymore. Long have gone the days of digging for nothing in dollar bins, plus I’ve kind of out-grown wearing dead people’s smelly clothing. But I happened to be in Gilroy, California (of all places) about a year ago when I can across this LP in a Goodwill. I really purchased the record for the title, but to my surprise I ended up with a really wacked out private pressing gem.

However, I was even more astonished when I found out that someone actually re-issued this album on CD. The people at Companion Records, a label that specializes in obscure and idiosyncratic private pressing releases, was down with the “Touchy”. Here is Luie Luie’s bio straight from their pages:

_____

Some years ago, a Los Angeles area collector stumbled across an orphaned copy of the “Touchy” in a thrift store. It was shared through tape trading networks and bootlegged on vinyl — now, Companion Records is proudly offering this first official “Touchy” CD release.

Luie Luie has to be the most jaw-dropping one-man-band lounge act found to date. The “Touchy” serves as a conceptual dance album, an experimental album, as well as a sort of healing LP for ’60s burn-outs. What can his music be compared to? Nothing that we know of.

Luis Johnston is a Southern California screenwriter, painter, and musician who’s spent the past 30 years working in almost complete obscurity. But he’s also written and starred in a feature film and shaken hands with Elvis Presley. Luie has been playing live at various restaurants, lounges, and country clubs for three decades and is still going strong. He released a handful of 45s in the ’70s and one full-length LP, “Touchy” in 1974. And he continues to record unknown quantities of yet to be released CDs.

– Companion Records

_____

Anyway, I selected two of my favorite tracks off the album. Oh yeah, this guy talks about random shit before he plays each song …whoa. I personally think his music would have sounded better if he had a drummer and bass player, but when you’re a lounge act, it’s all about the economy of scale I suppose. True microeconomics. Enjoy!